Critics of recreational target shooters air complaints at Boulder County meeting

By John FryarLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
07/23/2013 09:26:10 PM MDT

Updated:
07/23/2013 10:16:52 PM MDT

Shooting partnership

For more information about the work under way by the Northern Front Range Recreational Sport Shooting Management Partnership -- a coalition whose members include Boulder, Larimer, Gilpin and Clear Creek counties along with the U.S. Forest Service and Colorado Parks and Wildlife -- visit SportShootingPartners.org. Or, people can call project coordinator Garry Sanfacon at 720-564-2642 or email him at info@SportShootingPartners.org.

Sanfacon told the more than 60 people who showed up at an open house report of the partnership's work, that "Safety is the No. 1 issue ... We want to create safe places for people to shoot."

Boulder County hosted Tuesday night's meeting of the Northern Front Range Recreational Sport Shooting Management Partnership, a coalition that includes Larimer, Gilpin and Clear Creek counties as well as the U.S. Forest Service and Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

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Colorado Parks and Wildlife's Kathi Green presented the preliminary criteria being used to identify areas that may be studied further for their suitability for developed target shooting sites. Criteria include: being at least 1 mile away from the boundary of a nearby city or town; being at least 1/2 mile away from a residential development, subdivision or unincorporated townsite, and at least 1/4 mile away from a single-family home; being at least 1/4 mile away from a trail, campsite, or other developed recreational facility; and being at least 1/4 mile away from a communications tower.

Target shooting inside western Boulder County's national forest lands is a topic that has drawn crowds of recreational shooting advocates and critics to commissioners' meetings over the past several years. Some residents have expressed alarm about the safety of allowing sport shooting to continue or resume in such areas as Left Hand Canyon, a former community dump site near Allenspark and a onetime Nederland town dump off Magnolia Road.

A number of those critics were among the people attending Tuesday night's meeting, and their complaints and concerns dominated the first half of the two-hour meeting.

One man asked how many ranges would have to be created to satisfy shooting enthusiasts' demand. One woman questioned how government officials, particularly the U.S. Forest Service, is going to control people who might continue to shoot irresponsibly, or in closed-to-shooting areas, even after target ranges are developed.

"I was almost shot in the National Forest last October," said a man who said he was a hunter and shooter himself. He didn't say where that happened, but asked officials at the meeting how people can go about getting such areas closed to all target shooting in the future.

However, another man said that although "there are always rogues," he thought that if there are designated locations for safe shooting, most people will go to those sites.

Government officials at Tuesday night's meeting also heard complaints and concerns about noise from shooting, the possibility of shooting-sparked wildfires, and the messes left behind.

"Who's responsible for cleaning up these areas?" one man asked.

Sanfacon and the representatives of the other partners in the project invited people to submit their questions, concerns and suggestions via email or by filling out comment sheets available at the meeting.

Residents got a chance to meet and question the officials in attendance in small-group discussions during the second hour of the open house.